A bearer, or a bearer service, may refer to a telecommunication service used to transfer user data and/or control signals between devices. A bearer is typically characterized by a set of network parameters that define specific data treatment for data being transferred using the bearer. For example, the network parameters may include an originating address (e.g., a source address), a terminating address (e.g., a destination address), a data transfer rate, a quality of service treatment, guaranteed or non-guaranteed bit rate, or the like. In other words, a bearer is a medium over which data is transferred via a network.
When a long term evolution (LTE) user device uses a service provided by a network, the user device may need to set up a packet data network (PDN) session supporting the desired service. A PDN session may contain signaling sessions, associated with network devices and the user device, that are required to support signaling communications to provide and manage the service requested by the user device, as well as a default bearer connection that is set up by using those signaling sessions to allow data transmission between the network and the user device. A default bearer may refer to the first bearer connection that is set up between a serving gateway (SGW) and a PDN gateway (PGW) at the creation of a new PDN session. The default bearer may support best effort services by the network.